What does Thanksgiving mean to you? Is it the colossal amounts of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie? Charlie Brown? The Lions playing football, or is it the overarching theme of saying thanks and giving appreciation for the things and people in your life that deserve it.
For me one of the most meaningful parts of the holiday is the thanksgiving, the intentional time that we take to think about and give gratitude to the things and people that we often miss or overlook life. I was recently pondering how Thanksgiving might effect and relate to leadership.
I recently read an article from Forbes that stated that, “As people receive and give grateful feed-back, positive energy is created throughout the organization and, as everybody strives to do their very best, excellence and higher levels of performance are unleashed.” As emerging leaders it is our responsibility to learn to create and cultivate an environment that will allow people to openly give thanks and gratitude to one. If we move this idea from the minority to the norm than it will exponentially improve our work environment and results.
Upon some further investigation I found that per a Gallup Poll done in 2012 more than half of the people in the workforce do not feel completely satisfied with their level of recognition in the workplace for their contributions. I personally take this as a challenge to integrate the principle behind this Thanksgiving Holiday, into my workplace. Especially for all of us leaders out there we should feel the responsibility to increase gratitude and recognition in the workplace to boost morale, and at the very least for the increase in performance.
Do you feel appreciated and recognized for your contributions at your workplace? And does it affect your perfomance?
Links
About Thanksgiving: Gratitude, Leadership, and Performance – Forbes Article
U.S. Workers Least Happy With Their Work Stress and Pay – Gallup Poll
